He said: “Older buyers who do a refi or add a couple of mortgages are often more comfortable doing everything online than first-time homebuyers, who have not had that experience.
“So, I do think that it’s not all going to go online, and I say that because it’s an infrequent large transaction, and consumers who haven’t done it before really want that human interaction,” he said.
The survey also reported that most lenders had cited online direct-to-consumer lenders as their biggest expected competitor over the next five years, followed by mortgage brokers.
Palim said large players such as “Quicken and others”, who were separate from the traditional brick and mortar-type personal lender, had enjoyed a particular advantage during the pandemic since they were set up for a purely online-type business model.